Magic Stand Pat at Deadline

Orlando, FL— After yesterday’s trade deadline passed, the Magic were one of the four teams in the NBA that didn’t make any moves as they joined the Trail Blazers, Nuggets, and Timberwolves.

President of Basketball Operations Jeff Weltman was rather somber, yet cautiously optimistic when speaking to Mike Bianchi on the “Open Mike” segment this morning on 96.9 Game On. Weltman gave the community a ton of insight on the process of the trade deadline, how the front office approached it, and how the team ultimately wasn’t able to add any additional help to the current roster. 

Weltman Upset Magic Couldn’t Acquire Help

One of the first things Jeff Weltman shared was how they’re aware that the team needs shooting and their disappointment that the team wasn’t able to acquire any players. 

“I wanna let our fans know, look, man, we know we need shooting. We haven’t shot the ball well this year,” Weltman stated. “We need to do better. But we’ve played 58 games this year and our three best players have played six games together.”

“I am disappointed that we didn’t come out with anything,” Weltman said. “I’d like to have add a little bit of an impact player added to our team — We just weren’t ready to kind of chase it, and throw away what we’ve been building the last few years.”

Shooting Struggles

Orlando has one of the worst offenses to date, as they rank last in points per game (103.8) and last in three-point shooting (30.3%). Weltman addressed what he believes is contributing to the team and Kentavious Cadlwell-Pope’s woeful three-point shooting.

“Well, it’s not just him. I mean, I can go down the roster, and guys are shooting career lows, and I can’t account for it,” Weltman added. “Clearly, our confidence is shaking, and maybe we need to regain that — I wish I had a better answer to why career shooters aren’t shooting better. On paper, we should be a 35+ [three-point] shooting team, and that should be good enough to have us in the home court.”

The Magic have a defensive identity to their team first and foremost and when seeking shooters to add, Weltman doesn’t want to compromise the team on the other end.

“When you start to pull that thread and say ‘we’re gonna add shooters’, but you lose the other end of it. That’s where I think we wanna be careful to not really up-end the DNA of our team and unravel it before we get a longer look at this thing.”

Keeping Assets for Potential Long-Term Moves

Weltman continued to add to that point by stating that when the team is ready to make a move for a player, they will have their draft capital and players available to facilitate if need be.

“And if we do decide that we need to make moves like that — We want to know we have all of our picks and all of our players in the basket, and be able to bring our team forward accordingly.”

In a phone interview yesterday afternoon with Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel, Jeff Weltman talked about the long-term implications of trying to make a move that would help the team now. 

“A lot of teams angled towards some of our long-term assets in return for short-term solutions to the team. In other words, moves we regarded as a kind of ‘panic’ moves. And we don’t regard ourselves as having to panic right now. We think we’re a very good team.”

Weltman Made Multiple Calls

Weltman added how they were actively looking to acquire more talent, but didn’t want to handicap themselves by giving up future assets that they value.

“We were aggressive in seeking out what we thought could be equitable deals and they didn’t shape up,” Weltman told Beede. “Honestly, right now we’re kind of at the low point of the season with the way that we’re playing, and when that happens, when that coincides with the trade deadline, teams are going to squeeze you.

When attempting to make trades, Weltman made it abundantly clear that there were efforts with both ‘high profile’ and ‘lesser players’ to make changes on the roster. 

“While we did engage in some discussions, even with some highly significant players and a whole spectrum of lesser players. We just didn’t feel like the right deal shaped up.”

Injuries Factored into the Decision-Making Process

Injuries have plagued the Magic all season long as Paolo Banchero has missed 34 games, Franz Wagner 20 games, and Jalen Suggs 18 games. Weltman attributed a lot of the Magic’s struggles to a lack of rhythm, continuity, and Suggs who has been in and out of the lineup over the last month.

“I’m not trying to make excuses here. But injuries have clearly up-ended the rhythm and cadence of our season, and we’re still going through that right now,” Weltman said. “I think we need to take a deep breath, hopefully, we can regain our footing, and we’ll make assessments as we go.”

With the Magic currently sitting with a record of 25-28, they are going to roll with this group for the rest of the season and look to get back into the playoff race. It sounds very much that the front office this offseason will be more aggressive to make a move after another evaluation season, and that they are willing to make a big trade if they feel like it’s necessary.